The magic of dermatology

By Emily Margosian, assistant editor, November 1, 2019

At just 10 years old, dermatologist Angela Funovits, MD, began teaching herself magic. “I had seen one particular program on TV,” she said, “and for some reason it really hooked me.” Inspired, a young Dr. Funovits headed to her local library to start reading all the books on magic she could find. “At that time the internet wasn’t what it is now, so my main source of information was books,” she explained. “I studied every magic book I could get my hands on for years. I was really shy at the time, so I didn’t do a lot of performing in the beginning.” Eventually though, Dr. Funovits began building her confidence as a performer, little by little. “There was always this dream that maybe one day I could perform professionally when I’d watch these great magicians on TV,” she said. “I worked very hard throughout my teens trying to overcome my shyness, and it was just baby steps, small performances here and there that made me more comfortable over time.”

Her first big break came in 2007 after graduating from college. “There was a TV show called Phenomenon that NBC was casting. I had no plans of actually auditioning because I thought it seemed too far-fetched,” she said. “But one of their casting directors actually reached out to me directly and thought I’d be a good fit for the show.” After a few phone and video interviews, producers sent Dr. Funovits a plane ticket, and she was on her way to Los Angeles.

“I had never flown by myself before, and I was both excited and terrified,” she recalled. “When I arrived, I recognized a lot of other performers who I really admired and looked up to, and even watched on TV in the past. It was surreal to be there.” Although Dr. Funovits had been performing semi-professionally prior to being cast, appearing on the show opened new doors for her career in magic. “After it aired, I had more opportunities to go to other places. We went through Europe and Asia, and I got to perform on television shows there as well,” she said.

Transition into medicine

Ultimately, Dr. Funovits felt a strong calling to pursue her other passion: medicine. “I actually ended up taking two years off before going to medical school just to do magic. Finally, it felt like the right time to move on, but it was wonderful while it lasted. We talk about things like balance, and I do think it’s valuable to have multiple aspects to one’s life,” she said. “It makes you more of a well-rounded doctor in my opinion — to have other interests, to travel, and see what else is out there in the world.”

Although Dr. Funovits entered medical school with the assumption that she would go into general practice, eventually she turned her eye toward dermatology. “For a long time I just assumed that one day I was going to start my own family practice, but as I got closer to the actual start of medical school, I started doing some shadowing, and one of the specialists I shadowed was a dermatologist,” she said. “I spent the week with her, and not only did her knowledge and rapport with patients remind me of what I admired about my family doctor, but the subject matter she was dealing with was something that sparked a much deeper interest in me.”

Although she was fully immersed in medical school, Dr. Funovits wasn’t prepared to give up magic completely. “It was difficult, but it was a major part of my life and I made the decision to continue pursuing it. Knowing I had to fly out that weekend for a big performance made me do as much work as possible every single day when I got out of lectures. It made me especially productive, because I knew that in order to be able to fulfill this other passion, I had to stay on top of my work,” she said. “It actually gave me great motivation to manage my time well and work very efficiently.”

Even today, Dr. Funovits still manages to split her time between two worlds, sometimes spending the day in clinic before flying out that evening to give a performance. She also stays up-to-date on the latest in the field — something she says is not dissimilar to CME. “In dermatology you have to stay on top of what’s new — new research, new treatments — and magic can be similar in a sense,” she explained. “As a performer you need to evolve. Innovation is a big part of it, and I’m always studying, creating, and practicing.”

Q&A with Dr. Funovits

Q: What are your tips for beginners?

Dr. Funovits: Magic is actually very accessible. I still think that books are the best way to get started — that’s how I learned. There are foundational techniques that might not seem all that glamorous at first, but once you really master them you can create something amazing. It also helps to meet other performers and find a mentor, similar to what we do in medicine.

Q: Which routine are you most proud of?

Dr. Funovits: I think I’ll always be most proud of my first television performance on Phenomenon because of the amount of fear I had to overcome to accomplish it. That performance involved playing Russian roulette with a knife, something I performed only once on that show and have never repeated. I was working on a completely different routine in the weeks leading up to that performance, but eventually sat down with producers and together decided, “This is good, but we need something more attention-grabbing.”

We had wooden bases created where you would take a big hunting knife, place it pointing upwards into a base, and cover all of the bases with opaque cylinders so you couldn't tell where the knife was. Then I had to smash my hand down on the safe cylinders. Getting through that routine along with the fear of performing live in front of millions was something unforgettable for me. After the performance, one of the producers came up to me and in reference to what just happened said, “NBC is really happy.” For a 20-year-old who was just hoping that she wouldn’t make a fool of herself that night, the feeling was incredible.

Q: What’s harder — coming up with new ideas for tricks, or executing them?

Dr. Funovits: Those can both be challenging. When creating a new effect, magicians are taught to begin with the end result in mind without worrying about how they’ll accomplish it, and to reverse engineer the effect from there. I was on a SyFy show called Wizard Wars a few years ago, and the premise was that you were given random objects and had to then come up with magic routines using them. It was challenging, especially when the items didn’t fit naturally into existing magic techniques. On one episode they gave us earthworms — what are we supposed to do with earthworms? Coming up with the ideas and how you’ll make them work is often the hardest part but can be very gratifying. The actual blocking and execution of a routine often needs a lot of work and refinement to be performance-ready, but in many cases I find that to be less of a challenge.



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